With Summer in full swing and countless reasons for me to be using my iPhone I am finding that my battery is running down much faster than it normally does. Some of my decline in battery is simply because I’ve had the phone for almost two years now ( I’m holding out for the 7 ) but another factor is the increased demand on my phone.
In my travels this summer I’ve been using navigation more, taking tons of pictures and using my phone to keep up with happenings at home and in the office. I find that by the end of some days I’m down to 10% or less battery power. In addition to using more battery power, I’m also using more data. We get spoiled with our iPhones and auto switching to wifi whenever it’s around. Fortunately most of us have wifi at home and in the office.
There are several small steps you can take to extend the life of your battery when you know you will have longer periods of time between charges. Music streaming, just like movie streaming, is a big suck on your battery. If your using Apple Music I recommend that you create playlists so you can listen to your tunes offline. I’m a fan of turning my phone to airplane mode when listening to locally stored music, it significantly increases my battery life and it’s nice to know you can really relax for a bit knowing you won’t get any calls or text messages!
Location services are another huge suck on your battery. If you are using a navigation app to get to a destination consider turning location services off for that app once you get there. Unless you’re able to keep your phone plugged into a power source, navigation apps are some of the biggest drains on your battery so it’s advisable to turn those off as soon as you can. The same goes for notifications. It’s great to know that Bobby just posted a new picture to your Facebook wall, but it’s another background operation on your phone that can leave you with a dead phone in a hurry.
Another quick ways to help increase your battery life is to simply turn down your screen brightness. This is a really small step that can make a huge difference. You can also set your phone to auto adjust based on light conditions around you. Simply go to Settings > Display & Brightness and adjust it to make these changes automatically. Lastly, enabling low power mode can really help to give you some much needed time before you really need to charge your phone. In iOS 9, to enable Low Power Mode, go to Settings > Battery, flip the switch for Low Power Mode to tell your iPhone to use less power for a variety of background activities and visual effects. iOS automatically prompts you to turn Low Power Mode on when the battery drops to 20%; it’s best to accept that suggestion.
Summer adventures should be about more fun and less worry, hopefully these tips help you to capture and enjoy all these is to see and do this Summer while still staying connected.